


Strife

by Anonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Brief Violence, Capture the Flag, M/M, Meteorstuck, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, References to Child Abuse, Stabbing, alternia fuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26473423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Casualties of capture the flag
Relationships: Dave Strider & Karkat Vantas, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Kudos: 24
Collections: Anonymous





	Strife

Somewhere, in a secluded area of the meteor, there is a young Troll pacing back in forth in a corridor. Next to him lies a single red flag. 

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…"

"That's a lot of fucks there, Kat."

The Troll jumps, whipping around to see the red hooded figure in the shadows behind him. He brandishes his sickles, but doesn't yet move. "AAHHHH fuck! Get out of here! Get out or- or I'll kill you!"

"I'm god tier," states the figure, cocking his head.

"IT WILL BE JUST!!!" The Troll spits, waving his sickle in front of the unimpressed intruder, who's face betrays nothing of his plans.

The sickle waves in the reflection of the other boy's sunglasses. "Ok, besides the fact that it will not be just, I also have time powers, which means I can just-" without warning, the Troll is yanked backwards, a blade against his neck."-show up right behind you and stab you in the back, without even breaking a sweat."

The Troll stays motionless, careful so as not to touch the sword at his neck. Curse the fucker. "There, see? Now if you don't want to get hurt, not killed just hurt lol I have no interest in being murdered by Rezi or Kan, just surrender and get on your knees. Then I can- OW!" The blade drops to the floor.

The Troll quickly jumps away from the Human, pulling his sickle with him. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE YOU PISSSUCKER, YOU- oh my god. Dave are you ok???" Karkat drops to his knees as Dave slumps against the wall, grabbing at his thigh.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! This isn't the worst I've had." Dave sounds mildly distressed as he struggles to stay upright on his increasingly blood soaked leg, embarrassed that he let himself get stabbed so easily.

Karkat avoids looking at the damage, making high pitched distressed noises as he scrambles through his sylladex for some sort of wound covering. "Holy shit, I didn't mean to actually hurt you! Fuck, I'm sorry this was supposed to be fun, I forgot how fragile you are."

"I am _not_ fragile!"

"Shut up, fuck, how do you bandage it- augh!" Karkat throws his face into Dave's cape, holding his breath.

"What?"

"I'm- nothing!"

"Haha, you're scared of blood. You loser!" Dave is also afraid of blood.

"Shut up! Shutupshutupshutup! It's just stupid, look, hold on." Karkat pulls away and pulls off his sweater, revealing a black t-shirt also decorated with his sign.

He wraps the sweater around his companion's leg, very shoddily making a bandage. "Oh… thanks," says Dave, finally sitting down, and resisting the urge to adjust it himself.

"You're fucking welcome." Karkat slides next to him, grabbing his now bare arms.

There's silence, for a moment, before Dave remembers that they are playing a game.

"Uh… you aren't going to put me in jail?"

Karkat gives him a weary glare. "What? No. You're injured, you can't really walk away with the flag now, can you."

"Yeah, I guess."

They fall back into silence, Dave picking at the fuzz on Karkat's sweater. Looking down the hall, Karkat asks "so, what was the worst you've had?"

Dave shrugs. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Karkat nods. "Ok. Uh, when I was a wriggler I dropped a sickle on my foot and like, really injured myself. My lusus patched me up and like, hunted for food for me. I had to hide in my hole."

"Your hole??"

"Yeah," he answers nonchalantly, "I hid in a hole. With a blanket, to hide how warm my blood is so the drones heat sensors couldn't detect me. You know, otherwise I'd die."

"Wow. That sounds… pretty fucking intense." Behind his shades, Dave stares at the boy next to him.

Karkat shrugs, staring straight ahead. "It was pretty normal, in my opinion. I mean, I don't think other Trolls had to deal with that, it was probably just me. But to me it was normal."

"Yeah." Dave takes off his cape, his hood coming with it, and hands it to the alien, who looks surprised. "Hey, Karkat?"

Karkat wraps himself in the cape, ignoring the disturbing wetness on one side. "Hm?"

"I actually don't think this sort of game is fun."

Neither does Karkat. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's like, it's kind of violent? And intense?" Dave's head lolls, staring at Karkat more directly.

"It's supposed to keep us in practice so we can go fight Lord English." It had originally been proposed by Rose as a joke, and taken seriously and semi seriously by Karkat and Vriska afterwards.

"Yeah, I know. But it's training, it's not actually a game. I like games, just not. These."

"Yeah, I get that."

"Yeah?"

Karkat begins waving his arms with vigor as he talks. "Yeah. I mean, my whole life is kind of a fucked up training montage. And it's supposed to be something I, as a Troll, enjoys, like fucked up bloodsports, I guess. And then I get out in this game, and it sucks. It sucks so much, and I'm like will this ever fucking END? Like is it just going to keep going? FOREVER? Is this all my fucking life amounts to? Just another day stabbing people trying to get ahead and survive?" His eyes grow wide, before sinking lower into the cape. "Fuck, sorry that's too much information. I should shut up."

"You're good, bro. Thanks."

"For what?" Karkat rolls his eyes.

"Sharing, I guess. I relate, actually."

He peaks out of the cape slightly. "Oh. That's weird, I thought it wasn't like that on Earth."

"Nah, it wasn't for most people. Other kids probably didn't have to deal with training, but it was normal for me."

"Oh." Karkat bites his lower lip, face scrunching. "In retrospect, maybe it was stupid of us to fight members of our own party. Like, we could seriously get killed or something, not just injuring you. I really didn't mean you stab you so hard, I'm really fucking sorry about that."

Dave looks away, his face reddening (so he couldn't have lost _too_ much blood). "Um… so where is everybody?"

"I don't know, probably making out or something."

Dave grins. "Haha, gross."

"Right! Exactly!"

"Well, at least that's better than forgetting the game and consequently forgetting about us and going to eat that cake Kan alchemized."

Dave's voice echoes down the corridor, and his smile slowly fades. Next to him, Karkat's eyes have blown wide, and he sits up straight with his fists clenched.

"...fuck."

Karkat screams in fury.


End file.
